When Rosie the dog ran away from her new owner, she didn’t come back the very next day. She came back 10 days later, on May 19.
Her owner, Marlisa Brown, had taken her down a path off the Ingraham Trail with a few friends for a picnic. Rosie headed around a corner ahead of them on the trail – and disappeared for more than a week.
Brown, her friends and family, Rosie’s former foster family, and a number of other volunteers spent the next 10 days scouring the area north of Yellowknife for the missing dog.
Friends used a drone to look for the black and white dog from the air, while Brown brought out a crate with Rosie’s things so she might smell something familiar and come back. Neither plan worked.
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“After around one week had passed, I was feeling quite discouraged about everything,” said Brown.
But a few days later, she got a call from a man who described a dog just like Rosie on the Ingraham Trail.
“He ended up confirming that it was my dog and I immediately booked it out of my house and started driving down the highway,” Brown said.
“She was really scared at that point and just didn’t trust anyone or anything,” Brown continued, explaining Rosie didn’t even want to take food from her.
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It was not the reunion she had expected – she had found her dog, but couldn’t get Rosie in her car. So Brown called Rosie’s former foster mom, who came out immediately with their own dog.
It worked.
“Rosie ran up to her dog, Odo, and she was super thrilled and happy and was just laying on her back. She knew she was safe,” said Brown.
“It was a very overwhelming experience. I couldn’t even fathom what was happening at that moment. It seemed so unbelievable.
“I shed a few happy tears. We were all very much relieved.”
Brown said what stands out for her is the power of community and the unexpected support she received from so many people while her dog was gone.
Strangers shared stories with happy endings of their dogs going missing in -35C weather, which gave her hope Rosie would be found.
As for Rosie now? Brown said she is “quite happy relaxing in the house” after her adventure.
